State of the Union Address: November 22, 1797 (continued)

The consular act relative to sea men requires revision and amendment. The
provisions for their support in foreign countries and for their return are
found to be inadequate and ineffectual. Another provision seems necessary
to be added to the consular act. Some foreign vessels have been discovered
sailing under the flag of the United States and with forged papers. It
seldom happens that the consuls can detect this deception, because they
have no authority to demand an inspection of the registers and sea
letters.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

It is my duty to recommend to your serious consideration those objects
which by the Constitution are placed particularly within your sphere--the
national debts and taxes.

Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the public defense was
provided for chiefly at the expense of individuals, the system of loans has
been introduced, and as no nation can raise within the year by taxes
sufficient sums for its defense and military operations in time of war the
sums loaned and debts contracted have necessarily become the subjects of
what have been called funding systems. The consequences arising from the
continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish
us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own. The national defense
must be provided for as well as the support of Government; but both should
be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as
possible by loans.

The estimates for the service of the ensuing year will by my direction be
laid before you.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

We are met together at a most interesting period. The situations of the
principal powers of Europe are singular and portentous. Connected with some
by treaties and with all by commerce, no important event there can be
indifferent to us. Such circumstances call with peculiar importunity not
less for a disposition to unite in all those measures on which the honor,
safety, and prosperity of our country depend than for all the exertions of
wisdom and firmness.

In all such measures you may rely on my zealous and hearty concurrence.